Michael Boyd
MICHAEL BOYD was appointed as the Royal Shakespeare Co's new Artistic Director in July 2002 and took up the position in April 2003 with a mission for the company to work as an ensemble, connecting people with Shakespeare and engaging with the world. Since then, the Company has gone from strength to strength. Under his leadership, the RSC staged the Complete Works Festival in 2006, performing all of Shakespeare's 37 plays, long poems and sonnets, with 30 visiting companies from across the world. And as a Director, he has worked with a single long term ensemble of 34 actors to stage all eight of Shakespeare's History plays. The productions opened in Stratford in 2007 and transferred to London this spring to enormous critical acclaim. At the same time, the company has embarked on a major $225m project to bring actors and audiences closer together in a space Shakespeare would recognise, with the transformation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon into a thrust stage. From 1996, Michael was an Associate Director of the RSC, working alongside Michael Attenborough (Principal Associate Director, until July 2002) and two other Associate Directors Gregory Doran and Steven Pimlott (until May 2002). In 2001 he won the Olivier Award for Best Director for his productions of Henry VI, I.II, III and Richard III, part of the RSC's This England: The Histories season. Work for the RSC includes: Richard II, Henry IV parts I and II, Henry V (as part of the continuing Histories Cycle 2007/8), Henry VI, parts I, II, III and Richard III for the Complete Works Festival (2006/7), Twelfth Night (2005), The Pilate Workshop (2004), Hamlet (2004), The Tempest (2002) Henry VI, parts I, II and III, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (2000/1), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), Troilus and Cressida (1997/8), Measure for Measure (1996/7), Much Ado About Nothing (1994), The Spanish Tragedy (1994) and The Broken Heart. Michael was founding Artistic Director of the Tron Theatre in Glasgow from 1985. His productions there included The Trick is to Keep Breathing (Tron, Royal Court and World Stage Festival, Toronto), Macbeth (Tron and Mayfest), Good (Mayfest and Edinburgh Festival), The Real World (Tron and Stony Brook Festival, Long Island, New York), Crow, Century's End, Salvation, The Baby, and Clyde Nouveau (Tron and Edinburgh International Festival), The Guid Sisters (Tron, Clydebank, World Stage Festival, Toronto and Centaur Theatre, Montreal). 1982-1984 Associate Director, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. Productions include Commedia, A Midsummer Night's Dream and A Passion in Six Days. 1980-1982 Assistant Associate Director, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. 1979-1980 Trainee Director, Malaya Bronnaya Theatre, Moscow. Other theatre productions include: Drama Director of the New Beginnings Festival of Soviet Arts (Glasgow, 1989), Miss Julie (Haymarket Theatre, West End 1999), Commedia (Lyric Hammersmith, Nominated Best Play, Evening Standard 1983), Othello (Lyric Hammersmith - Nominated Best Director, Plays and Players 1985), A Passion in Six Days (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Hard to Get (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), Hedda Gabler (Leicester Haymarket), The Alchemist (Cambridge Theatre Company). Bio as of June, 2008. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: Downstage Center (audio) Michael Boyd - July, 2008 - Listen Now.